If It "Feels" Like A Diet I Won't Stick With It

I don't know about you, but on this journey to a new me I am discovering more and more about myself. The statement in my title above is 100% true. For me, If it feels like a diet I won't stick with it. How do I know this? Well let me tell you.

During the past almost 90 days I have traveled down memory lane. I have studied pictures of myself. I have watched as I would lose weight just to gain it back and then some. I remembered the diet that I was on at a particular time and how much weight I was able to lose.sometimes I lost weight on the current weight watchers program, sometimes I did a low-carb diet, other times I tried the low/no fat diet. I would go from one extreme to the other trying to find a healthier way to live. But then in the next set of photos I would have gained back the weight that I had lost and then some.

I never knew the reasons behind the weight gain but as the pounds continued to pack back on it was obvious that something went wrong. The "Diet of the Day" was not sustainable. It was not a new way of eating that I wanted to do forever. Aka: the rest of my life! So what was the problem? Me! I was the problem. I never looked at any of the diets as a new way of eating and living. I looked at them as "diets" and to me a Diet is something that restricts what you are able to eat and how much. Therefore I was always looking for ways to cheat. To go off my diet, to take the weekend off, to enjoy myself just this once and to start my "diet" over on Monday morning.

I know that I can't be the only person out there who thinks this way. But there is hope. I can make improvements in my stinking thinking every day. There is an old saying that I never agreed with until now, "You ARE what you eat.". I agree with this now because I realize the message is, You can eat all types of foods. It is meaning How Much of those foods that you are is the important issue. One cookie or one brownie is not going to make me gain back my forty pounds. But if I decide to eat that brownie or cookie I need to add it to my daily food intake on myfitnesspal.com and record the calories. If the cookie is 50 calories for one then that comes right out of my daily food intake calorie "bank".

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure this out. But it sure is nice to know that this old dog can learn a few new tricks! I tell myself daily that I am Not on a diet but a journey to a new me because after all doesn't it sound nicer to be on a journey somewhere nice and pleasant instead of being miserable and on a diet?